The Mitsubishi Motorsport crew of Harri Rovanpera and Risto Pietilainen
claimed the team's best result of the season today when they finished on the
podium in second position. The Finns claimed five fastest stage times during
the three-day event, demonstrating the increased performance of the Lancer
WRC05. Team-mates "Gigi" Galli and Guido d'Amore finished a fine fifth in
only their second outing in Rally Australia.

The final leg of Rally Australia was the shortest at 103.32 competitive
kilometers. However, the route still took in two loops of three identical
stages and with battles throughout the top of the leaderboard, action was
always guaranteed to be fast and furious. The stages have been as tricky as
ever, with all the crews reporting unbelievably slippery conditions on the
fast and flowing roads.

Harri Rovanpera started the day in third but in the first stage he reduced
the gap to Colin McRae to just 3.5 seconds. Then, in the longest stage of
the event (Helena North), the Finn powered ahead of his rival to claim a 4.7
second advantage in the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05. Consolidating the position
in the last of these three stages, Harri beat rally leader, Citroen's
Francois Duval, and a charging Chris Atkinson in the Subaru Impreza, to
claim another fastest stage time. Harri and Risto returned to the mid-leg
service with a 6.9 second advantage going into the final three stages.
However, the task ahead was made much easier when what should have been a
routine clutch change on McRae's Skoda saw the crew go over the time
permitted. So, even though the pressure was off the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05
crew, they still had three stages to complete without mistakes before
returning to Perth in a fantastic second position.

"I am very very happy for the whole team", said a delighted Harri, "and
especially for all the mechanics who have worked so hard since the beginning
of the season. It's been a great rally for us; the car has worked well, the
performance and speed has been good and the feeling has been right all
weekend. It's a great way to round off the year".

Gigi Galli, who had climbed as high as fourth yesterday, slipped from fifth
to seventh this morning. The Italian had no problems, but was once again
tackling stages for the first time and intent on finishing the rally without
incident. This afternoon however he still had to continue defending his
position from a charging Roman Kresta and, following the retirements of
McRae and Toni Gardemeister, the crew claimed fifth overall.

"It's been a really really tough rally", said Gigi. "Now I can see and
believe why it's so important to have experience of this event with the
surface, pace notes, speed; everything that makes a difference to your
performance. I have to keep in mind our goal was to finish, but fifth is a
good position for us".

Isao Torii, Head of Mitsubishi Motorsport said: "Finally, a great rally! I
am very pleased and so proud of our team; thank you very much to Harri,
Risto and everyone. The first and last rally of the season we achieved a
podium position and this leads us into next year in a very positive way; a
very big thank you. Gigi also kept our team orders and finished in fifth
position, which is very good".

Adding to their comments, Roger Estrada, Principal Rally Engineer said: "I'm
very pleased; this podium is the result of a fantastic team effort. The cars
have run extremely reliably all weekend and it's a big confidence boost for
our 2006 campaign. Congratulations to Harri, Risto, Gigi and Guido for their
performance on this rally and it's a great gift, from the team, to Andrew
(Cowan) on his last event".

Rally Australia closed the 2005 FIA World Rally Championship season and
although the crews don't return to competitive action until Rallye
Monte-Carlo, in January 2006, teams will now start a hectic round of test
and development work for next season.

News from our rivals

Francois Duval claimed the first FIA WRC victory of his career today, the
Citroen Xsara WRC driver finishing in Perth with a winning margin of 52.9
seconds. Behind Rovanpera in second was the private entry of Manfred Stohl,
the Austrian a further 40 seconds behind the Finn. Chris Atkinson put in a
great performance to climb from 13th to fourth by the finish and, behind
Gigi Galli, Roman Kresta scored more points for Ford with the all-new Ford
Focus RS WRC 06. The most heart-wrenching retirement of the day was that of
Colin McRae from second position, and then Toni Gardemeister also retired
from fifth, the Finn advised to stop when the water temperatures rocketed in
the Ford Focus RS WRC 06.

PWRC:

FOURTH IN AUSTRALIA FOR MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION DRIVER NUTAHARA

Lead FIA PWRC Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver Fumio Nutahara stepped up
his pace on the final day of Telstra Rally Australia, narrowly missing out
on a podium finish to end the rally in fourth position in both the PWRC and
overall Group N classification.

The third and final day of the rally took competitors east of Perth for the
closing 103.32 competitive kilometers, featuring two identical loops of
three stages and some fantastic competition to close the last round of the
2005 PWRC.

On an eventful rally, many PWRC crews hit problems as the unforgiving stages
penalized anyone who ventured even the slightest bit off line. But
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution favorite Nutahara drove a perfect rally with no
mistakes, rewarding him with five points to add to his total, to finish
fifth overall in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship driver
standings.

"The car has an even better feeling today as we took a softer compound
tire", commented the six-time All Japan Rally Championship winner.
"Unfortunately we had a slow puncture and we overshot a junction this
morning but we managed to stay on the pace. This afternoon has been fine and
although a podium would have been good, I am happy with fourth and this is
the highest we have finished in the PWRC".

Lancer Evolution driver Federico Villagra enjoyed his first taste of
Australian roads and with the exception of a few brake issues on the first
day, the Argentine drove a trouble-free event to finish his debut PWRC
season on a high, taking three points in the process for his sixth place
finish.

"This is my first time here and I have really enjoyed the rally. It's
incredibly difficult but I came here with a plan to finish the event to gain
experience and to prepare some good pace notes for next year, and we have
achieved both", explained three-time Argentine champion Villagra. "This is
my first year in PWRC so all the rallies except Argentina were new to me.
The level of competition has been very high this year but we have scored
some points so I'm very happy".

Italians Fabio Frisiero and Riccardo Errani were also competing for PWRC
points and both finished confidently in seventh and eighth place
respectively. After an enjoyable rally, Frisiero said: "Today has been fine
and we haven't had any problems so I was just enjoying it. I'm disappointed
for Aki [Teiskonen] who retired this morning but it means we scored another
point. At the beginning of the season I would have paid to score just five
points and now I am incredibly happy as we have finished the season with 17
- I can't believe it!"

Errani's event was a little more difficult than his fellow Lancer drivers
but the Italian was happy to take home a point. "For me it was important to
finish and we have done everything we needed to to do that. It has been a
very difficult rally but I'm happy with our performance here".

The first round of the 2006 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship is
scheduled to be Rallye Monte-Carlo running from January 20-22.